Re: Needle Fire Cons

> David Brewer writes:
> @:) Mikko Kurki-Suonio writes:
> @:) > On Thu, 24 Apr 1997, David Brewer wrote:
> @:) 
> @:) > > How many needle attacks do you want? I suppose a Capital could
> @:) > > carry three Needle FC in place of the usual....
> @:) > 
> @:) > Multiple needle attacks against the SAME system only need one
> @:) > FC.
> @:) 
> @:) Hmmm... I may have mistated the needle firecon rule somewhere
> @:) down the line. I thought it was implicit that this too would be a 
> @:) trait of a needle firecon, that you could direct any number of 
> @:) beams at one system.
> 
>   I think there is some kind of misconception about the needle beam
> rules happening in here somewhere.  There's no such thing as a "needle
> fire control".  Needle beams use regular fire controls - it's just
> that if you're using your fire control to direct needle beams at a
> target this turn, you cannot use the same fire control to direct other
> weapons.
> 
>   Unless you're using a modified rule set or I have completely lost
> it, in which case I'd like someone to tell me.  This stuff all comes
> from FT page 18, "Needle Beams".
> 
> -joachim

The Needle FireCon was an idea developed by Scott Field for his "First
Blood" PBeM scenario.  A majority of the ships in the scenario had at
least one Needle fire control.

Scott's Rules for the Needle FireCon are listed below:

NEEDLE FIRECON (4 mass, 20 points)

This specialized fire control system allows standard beam weapons to
make
attacks against specific systems, similar to needle beams. Needle
FireCons
can also be used to direct normal weapons fire, but not in the same turn
they
are used to make needle attacks. One Needle FireCon can be used to
direct
multiple beam weapons (from the same ship) against one target system.
The
range for making needle attacks is half that of the beam's normal range,
and
at each range interval (6 instead of 12) roll the usual number of dice,
ie
--

				  Range
		  0-6	    6-12     12-18
A-bat		  3 dice    2 dice   1 die
B-bat		  2 dice    1 die    ---
C-bat		  1 die     ---      ---
  
Unlike regular needle beams, standard beam weapons making needle attacks
ARE affected by screens; the number of dice rolled stays the same, but
the
type of die rolled changes with the level of screening:

Screens 	    Dice	 Required roll
None		   6-sided		 6
Level-1 	   8-sided		 8
Level-2 	   10-sided		10
Level-3 	   12-sided		12

Thus, a ship firing 1 x A-battery and 2 x B-Batteries at a target 9"
away
with Level-2 shields would roll 4 x 10-sided dice, and the target system
would be destroyed on a roll of 10.

Lastly, using main guns for needle attacks CAN do structural damage; any
dice which miss by 1 (ie -- 5 on a d6, 9 on a d10) do 1 point of normal
damage.

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